


oscillation

by anthropologicalhands



Category: Naruto
Genre: Chapter 693, F/M, Genjutsu, Mind Games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-13
Updated: 2015-09-13
Packaged: 2018-04-20 12:14:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4786883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthropologicalhands/pseuds/anthropologicalhands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sasuke's genjutsu has many layers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	oscillation

The first part of the genjutsu, when he shoves his arm through her chest, is wrenching, because it is almost real and she almost believes it. Almost a confirmation that she really did mean nothing to him, even after all this time.

But the move was too sudden, too instantaneous, even for him, and her mind clears even as the shade of Sasuke withdraws his hand from her chest and she looks down between them to see her heart pulsing in his fist.

It isn’t real.

She brings her hands together.

“Release!”

She does not, however, expect to be free of Sasuke’s genjutu that easily. He does nothing by halves.

(Of course, neither does she.)

–

When she opens her eyes, she is back in the village and it is nighttime. She is on a bench in the street, leaning against someone with her head on their shoulder.

Sasuke smiles down at her, amused.

“I was wondering if I was going to have to carry you home,” he says, his tone teasing. The sound is so unfamiliar that it sends a jolt straight through Sakura, forces her upright.

“I was tired.” The words roll easily off her tongue, though no such thought has formed in her mind. “I had a long shift.”

She shifts away from him. She knows exactly where they are and wonders why he would choose such a setting.

Sasuke shakes his head at her, still amused, and stands. He extends a hand out to her. “Come on. I’ll walk you home.”

She doesn’t take his hand, but stands and follows when he starts to head back towards the village. She is tense, waiting for the moment where he will attack her again and the nightmare will continue.

When he pauses to reach back, she flinches.

But all he does is grab her hand and draw her to his side. She stares at him, stunned. He smiles, the merest flicker, and resumes walking, his steps in time with hers.

There will not be an attack, here. Sakura feels an ache in her chest, from no simple wound. This pain comes from the understanding that such a simple scene, this serenity between them, is not real and cannot be.

It is a lovely idea. But her teammates are fighting each other to the death right now. She cannot stay.

She releases his hand and as he turns to face her and she sees the confusion on his face, brings her hands together again.

–

They are on the bridge and his hand is at her throat, squeezing.

–

The genjutsu is not simple. With every other release, it is as though she is falling backwards through her own memories. All of their previous encounters and more than a few that might have happened. Every moment where in real life he could have killed her—here he succeeds.

She does not realize he is behind her.

Yamato does not interfere.

She is a second too slow.

The other layers are difficult in a different way.

She wakes up at Sasuke’s side: at the bridge waiting for Kakashi, sitting in the hospital, or even lying in bed. She wakes up thirteen, sixteen, and twenty. She comes to in worlds where his family is alive and treat her as one of their own, where his mother teases Sasuke about their dates and his father asks after her training. Where Itachi smiles and seems anything but dangerous.

She wakes up in worlds where they brought him home sooner, where he is still rough around the edges but no longer fears his own heart.

She wakes with his crest on her back or with him in her apartment, curled under her pale green spread.

Always, she braces herself, telling herself that this moment of peace will be the last.

That the good will peel away to reveal the horrors again.

But they last.

In these moments, they are together, they are happy.

But they are false.

They are only fantasies. Once, long ago, she held similar ones dear to her heart.

–

The horrors, she understands. Her fears regarding Sasuke have often been immobilizing. But why these daydreams? All these airy, fluffy notions that amount to nothing? They are not convincing enough to hold her, so why show them at all?

That is the question she demands of this latest shade. She is growing impatient—she can break out of this genjutsu without question. That is not the problem.

It is the  _time_  she is worried about.

Her teammates could easily be dying.

This shade of Sasuke scowls at her, as though the answer is obvious. They are both seventeen and standing on the roof of the hospital.

“To keep you safe.”

“How?” Sakura paces back and forth in front of him. “By showing me what is  _going_  to happen or what  _can’t_ happen?”

“None of these things can happen.” The shade steps in her path, and Sakura halts. “They have passed. Things he wanted, but cannot have. Things he would have never let come to pass.”

“Get to the point before I punch you and just move on.” She does not have  _time_.

This shade simply sighs.

“The next one is the last,” he tells her. “Let it happen and you’ll understand.”

–

They are on the roof of the hospital again, but this time he and Naruto are fighting and she gets between them.

She is only thirteen and has not become a chuunin, a healer, or a woman who can punch holes in the earth.

Instead, even though she knows the futility, she turns herself into a shield.

Sasuke’s hand punches through her front.

Naruto cuts through her back.

She already knows what the look on Naruto’s face would be.

Here, she watches Sasuke.

He’s so young here; she almost forgot how expressive he used to be. She sees the horror in his face, the twist in his shoulders as he tries to pull back.

She hears his scream.

She does not look away.


End file.
